Windows 8 getting a public demo on a tablet next week?

Windows 8 has been in the spotlight a fair bit this week, what with Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer's comments – quickly played down by a company spokesperson – that the next-gen version of Windows would officially be landing next year.

But there's a second strain of Windows 8 news doing the rounds, and that's that a version of the OS running on a tablet is being lined up for a demo not next year, but next week.

Bloomberg reckons three people familiar with Microsoft's plans have whispered in its ear that the aforementioned Windows 8-infused tablets will be shown off at both the All Things D conference in California, and at the Computex show in Taiwan, which take place next week.

The demo will apparently take place on a tablet running an Nvidia Tegra processor, though further details are thin on the ground at this stage.

Microsoft launched Windows 7 just before the original iPad kicked off the tablet phenomenon, and with the Windows Phone platform still in an embryonic stage at that point, the company has been left with a tablet-sized whole in its OS structure while iOS and Android have made merry.

As a result, Windows 8 is a pivotal release for Microsoft, and it really needs to get things absolutely right if it's to stand a chance of clawing its way into the tablet land-grab. Some might argue it's already too late.